A threefold cord is not easily broken, says Qoheleth, the sage (Eccl 4:12). The Lord thus wisely gives us a threefold program for our Lenten journey: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The Old Testament knew all three practices, but only individually. It never held them together in this evangelical recipe. Jesus alone shows us how to bind the strong man fast (Mk 3:27).

Mr. Elliot Milco (MA ’13) is Deputy Editor of First Things magazine. Born and raised in Chicago, he came into the Catholic Church through the Dominican parish of St. Mary’s in New Haven, Connecticut, while studying at Yale University.

“I sat at a table and listened to a conversation between [an] atheist and a visiting Dominican priest. It was deep and substantive. The Dominican—Father Dominic Legge of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC—took the student’s questions seriously, and gave him answers. It was thrilling, to be honest.”

By Blackfriars Staff Through the Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, Friars and lay collaborators bring the healing presence of Christ to sick men and women over 60,000 times a year at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Hospital for Special Surgery.

In this issue of BlackFriars, you’ll read about Dominican Friars bringing God in word and sacrament to souls in secular institutions – colleges and hospitals – that are considered elite by the world’s standards.

At Vanderbilt University, the mission of our University Catholic (UCat) campus ministry contends with both an aggressive secularism and a deep apathy towards the search for truth. This spring, God’s providential aid came through our partnership with the Thomistic Institute of the PFIC and its distinguished speakers.